The purpose of the downloader function is not about downloading, but about getting the file in a state where it can be shared amongst the other functions within the Tape Index natural language processing flow. Since each step needs to reference the file being processed, it’s much faster and efficient to not have to download it every time it’s required. Here’s a refresher of the NLP flow…

As mentioned before, Modal is a powerful serverless computing platform. These means that code (functions) can be called on demand and only run for as long as the function requires. In many cases, this method of computing can be significantly cheaper and more scalable than other solutions. Since Tape Index needs to take advantage of GPU cores for certain aspects of its NLP flow, Modal is an ideal and cost-effective solution for running GPU enabled servers on demand…